RECONCILIATION AND REPUBLIC
- Nguyen Hoang Duc
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 1
Post 24/06/2025
It is said by some bookmakers that “If every library on Earth is burnt down but only Plato’s “Republic” is intact then that is all we need.” Of course this is just an exaggeration but thanks to this overstatement, humans are awakened to the value of this book. Why is this book or to be more specific, why is republic that important? Because when everything is thoroughly scrutinized, only republic is the evidence of human social organization, moving from law of the jungle to civilization and human values.
Why so? All animals such as elephants, deer, buffaloes, or bees… formed a hierarchy of natural strength, the strongest one was the leader and other members of the herds had to follow it. Moreover, the leaders are always treated with delicacies (the leader buffalo is awarded with the greenest grass field) or often has more mates (the leader male goat manages all female goats). Is this hierarchy prevalent in human life? In the earliest tribes and ethnic groups, social hierarchy was naturally formed; the wisest and strongest person or the chief of the village was revered as the one with highest authority. Even the feudalism which was formed under the king dynasty was only the upgraded version of social hierarchy. The philosopher and author of the world-famous book "On Liberty" - John Stuart Mill, once said that all the feudal periods in the past had no history because they were just tradition-based societies and they made no movement towards the spirit to make history.
This is the reason why many bookmakers and humanity in general all honor the ideal of “republic” by Plato. Because that is officially the moment when scholasticism liberated humans from the law of the jungle and allowed them to lay the foundation for human civilisation and human values. Recen tly, on September 9, Vietnamnet.vn has published a column named “Reconciliation and Love.” By the light of the path that humankind has followed for more than two thousand years, it is clear to us that:
First of all, humans cannot live peacefully and happily without reconciliation.
Second of all, reconciliation inevitably leads to the formation of republican society.
It is the enlightenment and reality of a human race that has struggled for perception and development over the last two thousand years. From all the discussions by the philosopher Sokrates on the streets of Greece, Plato had taken notes and published a whole book. History had been ignorant of the theory of republic, regarding it as an unrealistic ideal which could not be put into practice. However, miraculously, the seed of republic germinated and gradually grew, from Hellenic Parliament, to Roman republic, to Monarchy of the United Kingdom, to the 1789 French Revolution, all laying the foundation for the widespread wave of republic.
Until now, the republic has developed to the extent that almost no country wants to separate from the republic rule because if they do not adhere to the republic, these nations cannot prosper. All of this is the true history in order to corroborate the value of Socrate and Plato’s books on the republic.
What is republic? In Latin, its root is “public” which means community. In Sino-Vietnamese, “public” means a group of people living in harmony. Similarly, co-existence means exist together. To be specific, literally, which means we can understand in a different way, Sokrates said: Republic means sharing leadership and authority with other members of the community. Without the republic, there will be constant fighting and killing all over the world and people cannot live in peace. And the entire history has been witness to this. There are two main types of people in society: the superior and the inferior or the boss and the servant. The boss always abuses his authority to bully the underdog; meanwhile, the servants cannot stand up for themselves so they instead have recourse to go-slows, whenever the boss is absent, they will take a nap and then resort to stealing and misappropriating to make up for the wages. As a result, conflict gradually accumulates and when the boss has to fire and beat the servants, they will together rebel against their boss. And then the boss will have to call the police and the army because this force is always close to the boss since they together serve the king at Court. The army will come to suppress the revolt and the servants have to admit defeat but then hold out hope for bigger revolutions to regain their stance. Therefore, when either the superior or the inferior, for the sake of themselves, rebel, they will give rise to brutal and savage conflicts.
Pau Duc 22/4/2019
(translated by Dang Linh Chi)
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